


Our Hero Minerva

by DetectiveRoboRyan, FreezingKaiju



Category: Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken | Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - My Hero Academia, F/F, Five Years Later, Major Original Character(s), i hope yall dont find the dorks too annoying when they show up, michalis is a dick, minerva is BIG AND STRONG
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-02-28 15:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13274709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveRoboRyan/pseuds/DetectiveRoboRyan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreezingKaiju/pseuds/FreezingKaiju
Summary: For her whole career as a Pro Hero, Minerva has been shunted to the side by her brother, who regards her usually as an unkillable meatshield rather than an actual teammate. And now she's had enough. Time to prove what really makes a Hero.





	1. Slam

Michalis’ desk was mahogany. He’d spent a fortune on it-- not that it was a big deal to him, since being an (almost) top pro hero was a fairly lucrative job. Still, it irked him to have everything slam around like it did-- the antique Tiffany glass lampshade rocking with the impact, the top-of-the-line ergonomic bluetooth computer mouse jerking under his hand, the few loose papers that’d flanked the point of impact fluttering off to the side.  
  
He looked across the desk (it was custom-made, too) at his younger sister’s battle-scarred face, mouth scar twisting her face into an even deeper sneer than it usually wore, and then down to the letter she’d so rudely interrupted his game of solitaire with.   
  
“I’m quitting,” she told him, oozing vitriol. Michalis hit pause on his game and hoped she understood the gravity of that gesture. Michalis did not pause solitaire for just anyone.   
  
“Repeat that for me,” Michalis said cooly, leaning forward and steepling his fingers like some anime scientist Gendo Ikari lookin’ ass motherfucker.   
  
Minerva swallowed. “I,” she said. “Am quitting. Resigning. I’m not going to be part of your pro division anymore.”   
  
Michalis hummed. “A bold statement,” he said. “May I ask why?”   
  
And Minerva opened her mouth as if to tell him, but then closed it again. “You may not,” she replied, in the exact same cool, slightly-condescending tone of voice he so often used on her, which made his eyebrows twitch together in annoyance.   
  
“You assume you have a choice in the matter,” he said. “This makes you nothing to me. Unless you’re going to become a civilian.” He sneered, like it was a grave insult. “Is that your plan, Minerva? Get a desk job? Get a house in the suburbs? Live out your life in mind-numbing mediocrity?”   
  
Minerva tensed. “Don’t--” she began.   
  
Michalis leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs in such a pointed way that Minerva automatically took it as she would a verbal interruption. He shrugged, glancing out the big glass viewing panels of his office. “I don’t care that much, of course,” he said. “Just don’t get in my way.” 

“And so what if I do?” Minerva challenged. Michalis almost heard a tremor in her voice, but when he looked back, she was staring him down just as intensely as she’d stare down a reluctant hostage during an interrogation.    


Minerva bit her lip, probably reconsidering her decision. He went back to solitaire.

“Go on, then, if you intend to leave,” he said, waving a hand. Minerva straightened on instinct. “Make yourself scarce. I don’t like it when non-affiliates leave their trash in my building.”

Minerva bit back a string of insults. “So affiliate trash is fine, then?” she managed. “Like the big hunk of it sitting behind that desk?”

Michalis glared at her. The sky outside, previously partly cloudy, started to darken, the beginnings of thunder echoing on the horizon. Minerva stiffened when static electricity made the hair on her arms stand on end.

“Don’t flatter yourself, trying to play on my field,” he said. “But good luck finding some other hero in need of a hired thug.”

Minerva wanted to shout back, to say something, but she didn’t. She grit her teeth, turned on her heel, and left the office before the door slammed right on her heels. She’d show him-- somehow.


	2. The Wonderful World of Craigslist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minerva realizes she may have made a mistake. Eh well. No going back now.

There were about twelve variants on the Starbucks theme near the block Palla and her sisters lived on, but she always had her morning coffee at the oldest shop in town. Maybe it’s because they had been there when she was a kid, maybe it was how nice the owners were, or maybe it was just that they made a damn fine cuppa, Palla didn’t really care. However, Minerva wasn’t used to it at all, and it was almost funny seeing her try to squeeze into the miniscule booths (though, for her, most things were tiny; it wasn’t her quirk, she was just built like a brick).

“So...” Palla said as she steepled her fingers over her morning joe, “Do you have an actual plan?”

“Of course,” Minerva lied.

Palla raised an eyebrow.

“Alright, maybe I don’t have a plan,” Minerva caved. “I just cut all ties, personal and professional, with my brother, who was also my boss, landlord, and only professional contact I have, so now I have no job, no place to stay, and no idea what to do. And nobody actually likes me as a hero because I’m just his sidekick, or I guess I  _ was _ , so I’m--”

Palla stopped her there. “You’re hyperventilating,” she said gently. “Let’s take a step back.”

Minerva breathed. Palla had a point. But Palla always had a point, somehow or other.

“You need a team, first off. Second, you need to avoid his territory.” Palla took a sip of her espresso to punctuate, slurping the foam off first and not even flinching when the hot coffee hit her tongue. Minerva felt her own taste buds recoil in sheer terror and sympathy. “You’ve already got me, so that’s a start.”

“I… suppose I do,” Minerva admitted. “What does that have to do with it?”

“I’m your team,” Palla replied. “Duh. You think I’m just going to leave you high and dry here? No, we’re doing this together and we’re putting together a team. Are you familiar with Craigslist?”

“Is that a book?” Minerva asked. She rarely spent time on the Internet, much less knew the usual hiring processes. Her idea of entertainment was ripping logs in half and carving little toys out of the wood chips, probably. (It wasn’t, but Palla didn’t know that, and it was an amazing mental image. Minerva with her civilian flannel tied around her waist, tank top clinging to her skin, digging her nails into a groove in the wood and ripping it in half like the Amazonian goddess she was-- now that was nice. Not that Minerva needed to know that that was what she was thinking about. Not at all.)

“No, it’s on the internet,” Palla answered. She was going to ask her sisters, too-- Est had just graduated, and Catria had had no luck getting signed onto any teams or leagues, so she was surviving off waitressing money and hating every minimum-wage minute of it. “You’ve already been registered with a team, so you’ll already be able to get funding… bottom-level, sure, but it’s better than nothing.” Michalis could probably block them from getting more rank, but thankfully the initiation stuff was out of his jurisdiction.

“I don’t want to put anyone in danger,” Minerva responded, looking a little guilty. Her hand almost shook trying to grip the coffee mug, which to her was small enough to disappear in her palm.“This is personal. It would hurt to put you in danger, even more for strangers. It’s not their problem. Why would they bother?”

“Because, Minerva,” Palla replied. “Sometimes people do good things.”

That was hard to believe for Minerva. Her brother was a Hero, sure, but if her was any indication a Hero isn’t really a hero, just someone who keeps people relatively alive. He was nice for the cameras, sure. But when they were out of the public eye... oh, what Minerva wouldn’t give for the security tapes of the things he’d managed to say to and about her, and about Maria. Michalis was cunning, and unfortunately far more intelligent than the garden-variety bully people love to hate. But ultimately, that was what he was-- someone who held his own ambitions above the thoughts and feelings of others, even family, someone so blinded by dreams of being at the top that he cared little for whoever he stepped on to get there.

Palla seemed to know what she was thinking. “Not everyone. Most people, though. There’s two kinds of heroes on the bottom: kids trying to get their start, assholes who’ll do anything to move up the ladder, and people who just want to help.”

Minerva paused briefly, mentally counting three on her fingers, and responded, “I’ll take your word for it.”

Palla nodded and gave Minerva a smile that made her heart skip a beat, then proceeded to down the rest of the coffee in one gulp, something Minerva was sure would probably scorch like lava going down her throat. A weird expression came over her face, something like a smile and a grimace mixed together, but eventually the smile took over.

Maybe this would turn out all right.


	3. Some Ghibli Shit Goin On Right Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minerva has a fan. One the readers may recognize.

When Minerva got out of the passenger’s side of Palla’s dinky secondhand Subaru, she expected to see a house. And that was what she saw-- a little place with peeling paint and dusty windows and a few shingles from the roof littering the front yard, with an old tire swing hanging from a rope tied to a bough on the huge tree on the property. There was an old basketball hoop installed above the garage door, and a deflated basketball to match hanging out in the gutter that nobody had gotten down. A homey kind of place, at least more homey than anywhere Minerva had ever lived, and somehow exactly what Minerva had expected Palla’s house to be.

She did not expect to see the teenager on the porch, waiting eagerly at the door like a puppy waiting to go for a walk.

Minerva frowned, and looked at Palla. Palla’s confused expression told her that this wasn’t typical. Palla looked like she was about to call out to the kid, but she saved them the trouble and turned when she heard Palla slam the driver’s-side door shut.

She gasped. “I was worried I’d read the wrong address!” she said, hurrying off the porch with an enthusiasm Minerva hadn’t seen since Maria’s first chess competition. “I read your ad on Craigslist, and-- and-- and I couldn’t just not help, so I texted the number and then jumped right on my bicycle and came over immediately! It’s hero work you’re looking to do, right? I have my qualifications with me right now, with my GED and my 1-A Hero course certification --top of my class, of course-- and I have references from several Pro Heroes back in Japan, including my middle and high school teachers, and--”

“Alright!” Palla cut her off. “Alright, I believe you. What’s your name?”

The teenager straightened. She was tall, but not quite as tall as Minerva (nobody could be as tall as Minerva without being related to her, though the teen’s huge ponytail helped) and athletic, built like a baseball player or cyclist, though she was on the heavy side for that. The tank top under her hooded jacket read UA: PLUS ULTRA and then a series of characters Minerva couldn’t read, which explained her thick folder of qualifications she’d pulled out of her backpack. Mostly she just looked absolutely thrilled to be there, and Palla found it kind of adorable.

“Momo Yaoyorozu, hero name Creati,” she said proudly. “And-- you’re the Crimson Aegis, right? Minerva Drakon? I’m a big fan! I run a forum online with a few other people and-- oh, I’m rambling, aren’t I? Sorry, I’m just a bit starstruck! It’s not every day you meet one of your favorite heroes in person!”

Minerva looked so incredulous, it looked like her eyebrows were going to shoot off into space. A fan? She had fans?  _ Any _ fans? She was a sidekick, at best, but more really a lackey, and, like it or not, Michalis wasn’t quite the most popular hero in the United States, something he was regularly bitter about. Just under the class of hero that gets invited to the big annual meetings. It frustrated him to no end-- Minerva often had to be the one to bear witness to his ranting and rambling about how he deserves a spot at the top, how he’ll get one if it’s the last thing he does. Minerva mostly tuned out when he talked, unless it was a threat or an order. Better for her mental health that way. If he was born Quirkless, he could have had an excellent career in Midwestern talk radio.

“O-okay,” she managed to stutter, “I’m not sure I-- for me? Really? Not my brother?”

Momo rolled her eyes, as if that were a preposterous question. “Does your brother have a healing quirk he uses to use himself as a human shield to rescue people? I didn’t think so. That’s you and it’s-- it’s fantastic! Awe-inspiring! I want to use my quirk in such a creative way someday!”

Minerva was utterly flabbergasted. Palla, however, nodded in agreement. “Alright, welcome to the team, Creati! We don’t really have anything planned so far, though...”

“Oh, I can help! Or rather, um,” Momo paused. “Where are my friends? They said we’d all meet at two, and it’s... oh.” She looked down at her watch, then sheepishly back up. “...1:45. And I got here half an hour ago.”

Palla sighed and put a hand to her temple. “Well, auditions, or whatever, start in two hours.” That was when Catria and Est got home, at least. “Uh... Why don’t you come in and have a drink or something?” She wasn’t sure whether Momo was legal drinking age, but she had leftover grape soda and ginger ale at least.

Momo nodded enthusiastically and looked back up at Minerva. “Do you want me to get your bags, Ms. Drakon? Or can I call you Minerva? Or should I stick to Aegis, or Crimson, or--”

“Minerva is fine,” Minerva sighed. “I’m… not fond of titles and such.”

“So humble, too,” Momo said in an awed whisper. “A true hero!”

It was going to be a long day.


	4. New Hires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minerva interviews applicants, a fire starts. Arguements are made about comic books.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This includes some OCs. Be warned.

At two-thirty in the afternoon, Palla had eight college-aged girls sitting around her kitchen table. Half of them had credentials both local and international, references from teachers with names Palla couldn’t pronounce without sounding out each syllable, glowing resumes, and excellent conduct and mannerisms. The other half fell in various places on the “first serious job interview” scale, and looked like a pack of broke-ass twentysomethings. Minerva (who was, for an extra level of weirdness, Palla’s ex-boss) sat on the window bench with her big hands nervously fondling an empty can of ginger ale, and Catria and Est, in all their brightly-colored polyester work uniform glory, leaned against the counter. The air was thick with post-interview awkwardness, and it felt more than a little like Palla and Minerva were lining them up on a chopping block and no one yet knew who would live and who would die.

 

Not that that was a problem, though, since Minerva had decided they needed to have all of them.

 

One of the applicants seemed either completely aware of that or obliviously optimistic. She was decked out in a blue-and-yellow jumpsuit that reminded Palla of an old comic book character, all block primary colors, and she was grinning from ear to ear. She had very proudly introduced herself as “Flat Hero, Kite Girl!”, and that was almost literally her power: she was an inch thick and moved less like a human and more like laminated paper. On her left side was a woman who went by Rokuro in a grape-colored kimono who was in the process of nervously chewing her green sash to pieces. Her snakelike extendable neck was sort of writhing around her chair, and Minerva was worried she would tie herself in a knot.

 

The most professional-looking one of them referred to herself as Dirigibelle, and she conducted herself with somewhat of an air of grace and leadership (helped somewhat by her pristine white and silver flight suit), despite her quirk effectively being at best a slow form of flight and at worst a gigantic vulnerability. The final member of their group was sitting on a chair on the actual table, an easy feat given her six-inch height. Truth be told, the pink-clad woman looked unhealthy at first glance (she was almost as wide as she was tall), but she was shockingly fast and her feat of punching a cinder block in half was, proportionally, comparable to punching through a bunker wall. Truth be told, if Minerva was a much crueler person, she would have been the only one of the four hired based on actual merit.

 

The other three more professional ones introduced themselves as Toru Hagakure, Mina Ashido, and Kyouka Jirou. They already knew Momo-- the one so excited she looked like she was about to have a heart attack. Her friends did not seem to share the excitement, but they were professional and respectful, and had obviously been tested in combat situations before. And their usefulness was obvious even to Palla-- Toru’s invisibility meant infiltration and information gathering, Kyouka’s earphone quirk could be useful for detecting trapped civilians or hostages, and although Mina’s took a little more thinking, Palla figured you couldn’t go wrong with slinging acid. Her plan had been to just hire the four UA students, but then she’d seen the way Minerva started looking at the other four, and silently prepared herself for the inevitable. 

 

Palla sighed inwardly. Damn Minerva and her soft heart, taking in every stray. But Palla couldn’t blame her-- useless quirks be damned, even Palla didn’t have it in her to turn them away when they obviously just wanted to help.

 

As the awkward silence extended, Kite Girl suddenly jumped up and shouted, “SODOWEHAVETHEJOB?” Everyone around the table jumped, and Kite Girl covered her mouth, rolling up and falling onto the floor in embarrassment. “Sorry! Sorry, ma’am, sorry, I’m just...I really really want to help people and this is the first time anyone has taken us seriously and I’m just...” She broke off, hyperventilating, and Dirigibelle put a hand on her shoulder.

 

“Do not worry, liebchen,” she said softly. “I’m sure they will make ze right decision.” She paused, and looked up at Minerva. “May I be permitted to ask if you accept our applications or no?”

 

“Of course,” Minerva said, at the same time as Palla starting to say “We’ll think about it.” Palla gave Minerva a Look, and Minerva shrugged helplessly. Palla sighed.

 

“Yes, you’re on the team,” Palla caved, rubbing her temples.

 

Kite Girl jumped up in excitement. “We’re on the team!” she repeated, wobbling happily. “So what’s the first order of business? Cat up a tree? Burning building? Speeding train? Pun-related villain?”

 

“You read too many comic books,” Meimei muttered.

 

“You’re darned right I do,” Kite Girl said firmly. “You’re just jealous ‘cause my collection is cooler than yours.”

 

“Oh fuck off, Hot Wheels are  _ cool _ and nothing you say will ever disprove that,” Meimei huffed angrily. Palla resisted the urge to scold her for language like she would Est.

 

Minerva rubbed her chin. “Palla, what is the plan?” she mumbled. “I hadn’t thought that far.”

 

“Neither have I,” Palla whispered back. “Just roll with it, I’m sure we’ll find trouble at some point. It tends to find Est.”

 

“... You guys don’t have a police radio?” Tooru asked from behind both of them. “They’re not that hard to get, only slightly illegal, and nobody cares anyways.”

 

“I saw a cop car behind the billboard on the edge of town,” Est piped up. “I can go steal it once I get my toolbox.”

 

“Est, not again,” Palla sighed. “Did we learn nothing from the paintball incident?”

 

“I have one in my van,” Tooru said, probably pointing, but nobody could tell.

 

_ “Maybe you should’ve started with that,” _ Mina whispered to her, in Japanese. 

 

“ _ Didn’t think it was important, _ ” Tooru replied. “Anyway, yeah. I like to listen to the chatter, even if I have no idea where anything is.”

 

“Catria knows the city like the back of her hand,” Est volunteers, making Catria’s ears go pink. “She can be your navigator. I’ll be the motorcycle escort. It’ll be all official and stuff.”

 

“That’s a terrible idea,” Catria said. “You swerve so much, you shouldn’t be escorting anything.”

 

“Suck an entire ass, Catria, I’m a great biker,” Est grumbled.

 

“Language,” Palla scolded. 

 

“Tooru has a van,” Kyouka suggested from the back of the room. “Dibs on DJing.”

 

“I want a role,” Momo muttered. 

 

“And I want to go to college, but we can’t always get what we want,” Catria replied.

 

“Same,” Meimei muttered, looking… well, you couldn’t tell with her full mask, but  _ sounding _ disgruntled. It was honestly impressive how she sort of twisted her voice into a grimace, though something about it sounded practiced to Palla. Like she was a voice actor, impressively faking anger and not really experiencing it. 

 

“I-I w-w-went to c-college,” Rokuro spoke up, fidgeting nervously with the tablecloth. “B-briefly. Didn’t want to disappoint...still ended up doing.”

 

Palla stood up. “Alright, team, focus,” she said. “Tooru, isn’t it? We need that radio. If we’re going to get anywhere, we’ll need to be first on the scene.”

 

“Yes, that’s me!” the invisible girl answered cheerfully. “I’ll go grab it.” She dashed out the door, almost bowling over Est in the process. 

 

Soon, she came walking back, floating gloves lugging a huge, imposing-looking radio with the words “Boston Police Department” badly scribbled over with Sharpie. “Here!” she grunted as she placed it on the table. “Totally got it legally. Definitely.” She paused for a moment and then added, “I’m winking if you didn't notice.”

 

Est eyed the definitely-not-stolen radio. “I could’ve ripped us a better one out of Sheriff Lowell’s squad car,” she said. “Just saying.”

 

Palla glared at her. “If I have to talk to the social worker about your mild-to-moderate kleptomania again, I will, genuinely, throw all of your cereal into the dumpster.”

 

“That is  _ so _ punk rock,” Kyouka mumbled.

 

“By the way!” Momo piped up as she pulled a map out of her arm, “I have a mental map of this area of turf that isn't claimed by anyone so we could definitely intervene there and almost always be the first on site! Seems like heroes here tend to avoid the more impoverished city districts...”

 

Minerva looked impressed. “That’s some good initiative,” she said. “Boston is a big city. It’s impressive you have it all mapped out.” Momo, at the praise, looked like she might faint. 

 

“ _ You adorable dork _ ,” Kyouka said, reaching over to playfully ruffle Momo’s hair. 

 

_ “She said I have initiative!” _ Momo squealed, squishing up her cheeks with her hands.

 

Kyouka gave her a kiss on the cheek. “ _ You do, you know. Don’t know what I’d do without you. _ ”

 

Mina snorted. “Ha, gay.”

 

Palla rubbed her temples. Est had moved up to the radio on the kitchen table, pushed up the sleeves of her long-sleeved undershirt, and started fiddling with the dials and switches. Minerva recognized what she was doing-- Michalis had an actual legal police and disaster radio that he used to monitor dispatches, and though she’d never used it or known how to use it (she was just the dumb muscle backup, after all), she knew Est was doing  _ something _ . 

 

Suddenly, the radio crackled.

 

“--I repeat, three-alarm fire at Parmelee Court Homes on 1782 Washington Street. Heroes not responding. Currently manning fire engine, eta of 20 minutes. Over.”

 

Kite Girl jumped up. “They need our help!” she decided. “Let’s go, team!”

 

Toru grabbed her keys. The eight college kids immediately piled out through the front door, or at least tried to-- it took a minute to get everybody out. 

 

Palla sighed even deeper than usual and put on her helmet. “I’ll get our car ready. We'll have to give on-the-job training.”

 

Now all she had to do was hope the rescue went alright.

 


	5. Minerva Breaks A Building

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A first hero outing! Thrills! Chills! Meimei being panicky and closeted! Things happen, probably.

It wasn’t a long drive, mostly because Toru and Palla broke at least twenty traffic laws each trying to get there quickly. Palla screeched to a halt in front of the burning apartment building, leaving tire marks on the road. The van stopped six feet away, and the other half of the team spilled out. 

“Alright, nobody charge in,” Palla ordered. Of course, it didn’t happen like that. Minerva vaulted out of the car like a freight train, charging into the burning building with exactly zero regard for her own safety. Classic Minerva.

“Amazing,” Momo said with a look of awe. “She’s so heroic!”

Palla rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. “Alright! First off, before we go in.  Creati, can you make gas masks? Or anything to protect our breathing?”

Momo’s face snapped into a far more serious expression. “Yes, ma’am!” She reached into her sides and arms and began pulling out gas masks, tossing them to everyone in turn. Palla threw two of them at Est and Catria, now wearing bomber jackets with patches that matched Palla’s-- Est caught it, and Catria’s hit her in the shoulder. 

“You two head to the top floors and knock on windows, see if anyone needs rescuing,” Palla ordered. “Dirigibelle, you too. Does anyone here know first aid?”

Kite Girl, Rokuro, and Toru raised their hands.

“Right, you three stay out here, help anyone we bring out.” Palla cracked her neck and pushed her wings out through the gap in her jacket. She flapped her wings and launched herself into the air, her sisters and Dirigibelle soon joining her.

Inside the building, the place burned. The air on the higher floors was thick with smoke, fire rapidly consuming everything it touched. Smoke poured out the windows, and though the sprinkler system was doing its best, there was just too much fire. Minerva charged through it all without a thought for her own safety, her healing quirk working for her to heal every burn from a cinder falling on her skin. 

Meimei attempted to keep up, her helmet thankfully working perfectly well, and not so much healing from the falling cinders as just wincing and ignoring them. Alien Queen (Mina) followed close behind, checking on and melting blocked doors. Meimei chose to follow Minerva’s barreling path mostly because she was too tiny to actually carry anyone to safety. The least she could do was help Minerva. She didn’t feel the pain-- she had long ago gotten used to it. It seemed like Minerva had, too.

Meimei noticed a burning doorway that lay directly in their path and steeled herself. There was a big enough gap in the wooden rubble that lay in the path to squeeze through, and if the whole thing caught fire... well, she was confident she could survive that. She had before. Some part of her was screaming inside. She shoved it down. It wasn’t important.

It looked like Minerva had the same idea. She pushed forwards, feeling at the cracks of the door to see if the fire had spread inside. It hadn’t, but the smoke coming from up the hall was rapidly getting thicker as the fire chewed through wood and plaster and carpet, the chemical reek of burning polyester filling the air.

Meimei scrambled over the blockage, briefly pausing to shout up at Minerva, “Boss! Are you sure you’re okay without a mask?” before running into the room to look for people.

“I’m fine,” Minerva insisted, but whatever sentiment she was trying to get across fell flat when she saw Meimei charging into the burning room.

Meimei paused, staring at a beam from the ceiling that was blocking the door to a child’s room. She closed her eyes, and, focusing on the breathing exercises she learned years ago, began growing to the height of a normal person. Opening her eyes, she quickly reached down and grabbed the beam, straining the huge muscles under her layer of padding to toss the beam aside and yank the door open. The moment it was open, she let out a huge sigh, and shrunk down to her normal miniscule height. 

“Don’t feel so good,” Meimei muttered, and cast a glance to the terrified child sitting in the bedroom she had just opened. “Run, kid! Get outta here...” She trailed off, and stumbled a bit as she turned back to the door. “Boss? I don’t feel so good...”

Minerva muttered a curse under her breath. “Apartment 406,” she said into the walkie-talkie clipped to her collar. “I’m sending Meimei out with you.” At Palla’s staticy confirmation, Minerva crouched and picked up the terrified child like he weighed nothing at all. 

“Sorry I wasn’t much useful,” Meimei muttered to Minerva. “More of a fighty type...” Up close, Minerva could now notice large burns on Meimei’s outfit. A few were from falling cinders, most likely, but she noticed some that were old scars. Meimei must have seen some combat in her life. Maybe she’d ask about it later.

“We’re getting you to safety,” was all Minerva said, gently picking Meimei up in her big arms. “Thank you. I couldn’t have moved the blockage by myself.”

“Glad to help...” Meimei responded, then after a few seconds added, “You can’t see it but I’m smiling right now.”

Just then, Palla threw open the window. Minerva handed the child and Meimei to her. Palla’s massive wings blew gusts of clear air through the windows, keeping herself aloft like it was second nature. 

  
“Please don’t get yourself killed,” Palla sighed at Minerva.

“I won’t,” Minerva promised. Then she charged off to look for more survivors, and Palla flew Meimei and the rescued child down to where the ambulances had started to gather in the street. Kite Girl, Toru, and Rokuro were aiding the official paramedics as best they could. 

Minerva turned away from the window and re-entered the inferno. There were still people left to save.

Palla set Meimei down near Rokuro and she immediately ran up, picking her up and exclaiming, “Are you okay? I think-- I think we have bandages that’re small enough but-- oh, your arm!”

Meimei looked at her left arm, and now that the adrenaline was beginning to fade, it started hurting. No surprise there, there was a big enough burn on her upper arm that the skin was peeling off already. “...Huh. That’s new.”

Rokuro hurriedly pulled out some antiseptic and dabbed the wound, then began to wrap gauze around it. “You need to be more careful, dear!”

Meimei glared up at her and muttered, “We’re in public, ix-nay on that...”

“Oh, right, s-sorry, sorry,” Rokuro stammered apologetically. “Forgot. Public image… and your parents...”

But they didn’t have time to deal with it. With a groan, the walls and floors of the building started to fall, crumbling into ash. The three sisters finished ferrying everybody down to safety, making sure that everyone had gotten out safely. The firefighters and the paramedics ran over the details of what had happened with the rest of the team, and already, city news had started to pull up. It wasn’t a huge scene as it would’ve been in a more urban area, but buildings certainly didn’t collapse every day.

Meimei looked around. “Hey, hold on a second,” she realized. “Hey, uh-- where’s boss? I didn’t see her come out of the building.”

Palla looked back at the building. She blew a stream of air out of her mouth. “Of  _ course _ she didn’t,” she muttered. “Why would Minerva  _ ever _ do something good for her own well-being.” She was taking this remarkably well.

Meimei was hyperventilating inside her mask. “I THINK YOU’RE TAKING THIS PRETTY WELL CONSIDERING ANYONE IN A FALLING BUILDING IS  _ USUALLY MUSH!” _ She had to practically shriek to make herself heard at her size, her voice cracking with the effort.

Almost like fate itself was proving Meimei’s point, more walls groaned. A gas pipe burst, blasting the immediate vicinity with hot air. 

“ _ LOVELY!” _ Meimei shouted, about two steps away from panicking herself into a faint.

Palla put her hand on Momo’s shoulder. Momo, who had been dealing with the reporters like a pro (which she basically was), straightened, waiting for her orders. “Don’t answer any important questions until I get Minerva back out of there,” she said. “The rest of you, stay back. We’ve only got one self-sacrificing idiot hero on the team thus far and I’d like to keep it that way.”

But Palla didn’t get very far. With a mighty CRASH, a huge shape burst out from the rubble. Her clothes were singed and her skin was covered in deep, painful burns, and she smelled like burning hair. But it was Minerva, and she was alive, and there were definitely going to be pictures of that in the paper.

Momo sucked in a gasp. “So cool…”

Palla shook her head, almost fondly, and ran to help keep Minerva upright until her self-healing quirk kicked in. She winced when it did, the charred skin crumbling off and new nerves, muscles, and skin growing to replace what had been damaged, leaving only little pinkish scars like a multitude of others that crossed all over her skin. 

“I told you not to be a hero,” Palla muttered, leaning up and brushing some of Minerva’s singed hair off her face, then stroking down the soft new skin on her cheek and jaw. Minerva caught Palla’s hand in her own and gave it a squeeze.

“It’s my job,” she said. “Besides, aren’t I supposed to be setting an example?”

The newbie heroes gaped at her, except Meimei, who seemed to have made good on her threat of fainting. Rokuro, probably used to her friend, caught her. Nobody could really tell what Toru was feeling but everyone assumed she was impressed. Who wouldn’t be?

Well, Michalis wouldn’t, but thankfully, he wasn’t there.

Est walked back to the team while Catria and the UA heroes handled the press. “Well, that could’ve gone a lot worse,” she said blithely, putting her hands on her hips and looking at the rest of the team. “Not what I pictured myself doing after work today, but that’s part of being a hero, idn’it? Oh--” she seemed to just notice Meimei n that moment, and frowned. “Is she like… okay?”

“Too much excitement,” Rokuro said practically. “She’ll be okay.”

“Excuse me,” a new voice piped up, a soft little voice belonging to a young woman with soft pink curls and a pair of red glasses. “You’re the heroes that rescued the people from the building, right?”

Est cleared her throat. “Sure are,” she said. “And you are?”

The young woman pushed her glasses up on her nose and took a little notebook out of her pocket. “My name’s Genny,” she said. “I’m a student reporter working on a piece about heroes working smaller-time disasters. Do you mind if I, um, ask a few questions?”

Est, like a useless lesbian who can’t recognize when a girl wants to talk to her, grinned brightly and nodded. “Sure, sure, but you’ll probably want to talk to my boss, Minerva-- uh, Red Dragoon.”

“No, I’d prefer to talk to  _ you _ , miss, um, what’s your name?” Genny was very directly looking at Est. Miki, Freddie, and Charlotte, who were probably less useless lesbians, shared a glance at each other, and then at Est, and all arrived at the same conclusion, which was that Est was a dumbass.

“Skyla-- oh, you mean my hero name, right?” Est laughed abashedly. “Uh, I’m Peregrine. Almost forgot. Haven’t hero’d in a while.”

“Hmm? I don’t recall hearing of you before.” Genny looked over at Est’s sisters. “Do you have a theme with those two? It doesn’t seem to be a group theme.”

“We actually just met today,” Est said. “Found ‘em on Craigslist. It’s kind of a new thing. Uh--” she cut herself off, unsure of how much information she could really reveal. She looked back over at Minerva and her sisters, but all of them were talking to the  _ actual _ press, so she was on her own.

“Well, that’s,” Genny pursed her lips. “We need up and coming heroes, I think. Can you tell me about your mission? Teams form for a reason.”

“We’re fighting the Republican party,” Miki blurted. 

“Please don’t write that,” Est said quickly. “We’re not doing that, actually, we’re doing, uh, other things. But kicking ass is one of them, you can count on that! Helping people, stopping speeding trains, that kind of thing.”

Genny frowned. “You don’t really know what you’re doing, do you,” she pointed out, which somehow sounded even worse coming from a voice that sweet.

Est sighed. “Not one fuckin’ bit.”

“Ad said Minerva was forming a group to ‘do good in general,’” Kite Girl spoke up. “And by golly gosh we will!” Wonderful, she sounded only half like a person and half like a forties radio serial. As usual.

“In all seriousness it is, er, very difficult to get a job as hero in a major American city,” Freddie interjected. “I am helping to support my family, and it’s just... it is very good to get a job that does good in whatever form.” She paused, and added, “Apologies, you were talking with Peregrine. Carry on.”

Genny laughed, which made Est flush to the tips of her ears, like the gay motherfucker she is. “No, no, I don’t mind,” she said. “That’s a lovely perspective. May I quote you on that?”

“Yes.” Freddie nodded simply. “My hero name is Dirigibelle, if it is needed. I presume we are registered?”

“Uh...” Est checked her phone. “That paperwork cleared... Yeah, about three minutes ago, we’re good.”

Genny twirled her pencil around her finger. “So, you’re a group of amateur heroes who met on Craigslist, intending to ‘do good in general,’ you literally got your registered status three minutes ago, and you’re already out saving people?”

Est looked back at the team. The girls looked at each other and nodded.

So Est shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Genny hummed. “Well, then,” she decided. “Here’s hoping you can do all the good you set out to do, Peregrine!”

Est smiled nervously, and tugged at her tank top. “We’ll do our best,” she said. “Will you be around to report it?”

Genny’s eyes sparkled knowingly. “I always am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to Lila17 for reminding me this fic existed and leaving excellent comments!


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